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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7628401" data-attributes="member: 58172">My intention is for the ‘Skill’ levels to be highly impacting to define the out-of-combat identity of a player character. The class levels themselves will not handle skills, except for one inherent musthave skill (Fighter Athletics, Wizard Arcana, Rogue Stealth, etcetera).So the Knight/Warlord class description will suggest typical livelihoods/backgrounds, such as ‘Noble’ for a highborn Knight, but also ‘Farmer’ for a rags-to-riches Knight, and ‘Grey Elf Griffon Rider’ for a nonhuman Knight/Warlord. And so on. But players can choose whatever livelihood they wish.Each livelihood defines the skill set (probably three or four skills) along with a special noncombat privilege or capability.Importantly, the livelihood defines the identity of the character outside of combat. Especially, the player is encouraged to decide the central persons and places that the character bonds with, such as a mentor or school, or noble family, or remote farm, alchemist shoppe, armorer smith, wilderness hunter and tracker, or whoever or wherever, that seems appropriate for a level 1 character to have affinity with.Each skill will think more clearly about how it can be used in combat and out of combat. For example, the History skill in the sense of military history, should be able to identify combat vulnerabilities among humanoids, similar to how Nature can among natural creatures, and Arcana can among extraplanar creatures. Arcana can as a ritual detect the presence of magic. I would use it for identifying a magic item, even tho in 5e this is automatic during a short rest. Medicine needs to explicitly detect disease and poison. And so on. These ‘Worldly’ skills work well when they are impactful, with multiple examples of how to use them.Skills and their livelihood are important, especially in settings where combats are less frequent.Players are encouraged to think about how the respective livelihoods got their characters to meet each other and eventually venture out together.The reason I am saying ‘livelihood’ rather than ‘background’ is because the skill set is ongoing and advances while leveling. At higher levels, the skill levels allow the player characters to gather a cohort (family members, students, hirelings, soldiers) and so on.</blockquote>

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